Incredibly random reboots

[yippy3000]

Every once in a while, maybe 1-2 time a week, my computer will suddenly reboot.  No warning, nothing.  What I am doing also doesn't seem to matter, most it happens when web browsing but has also happened while gaming (several different games).

 

The windows event logs hold no information prior to the reboot, just the normal "system rebooted unexpectedly" log message when it comes back up.

 

Any ideas on how to even start finding the issue?

 

 

My system:

 

• CPU
  i7-4790k
• Motherboard
  Asus Z-97 Pro (WiFi AC)
• RAM
  16 GB G-Skill Sniper 1866Mhz
• GPU
  2x EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0+
• Case
  Fractal Design Define R5 Black Windowed
• Storage
  256GB Samsung 840 Evo, 1TB WD Green, 750GB laptop drive
• PSU
  EVGA 750 G2
• Display(s)
  BenQ GW2765 1440p IPS
• Cooling
  Corsair H80
• Operating System
  Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit

 

[Crowes]

The first assumption I jump to is overheatin, but you do have a watercooler.

 

Any information at temperatures for your idle, ambience and full load would be great.

[yippy3000]

I have pretty good temps (assuming HWiNFO is any goo ) as I have it running on my Rainmeter sidebar constantly.  Idle temps for CPU and both GPUs are around 50C.  Under full load of Intel Extreme Tuning Utility stress test, CPU is around 70-80.  GPUs will get close to their temp limit of 90 but never quite hit it running furmark

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey yippy3000,

 

I would make sure all the latest OS and driver updates are installed and that nothing is hitting 100% usage during the reboot. Scanning your computer for malware might also be a good idea. You can try running it for a while on its bare minimums and see if it restarts again (no GPU, only the boot drive, one stick of RAM).

Have you overclocked anything? Bringing back everything to stock speeds and settings might also help. 

Checking if there's a newer version of the BIOS is also a good idea. 

 

Captain_WD.

[yippy3000]

I have Malwarebytes pro and Bitvise AV running but I can do a manual scan.

 

You are probably right on the OC, I do have the CPU overclocked to 4.7 so I will bring that back to stock and see if it happens again.

 

I try and keep everything as up to date as I can, I just did a bunch of driver updates after this started happening but it still is happening.  I also have an issue with 7 Windows updates that no matter how many times I install them, keep showing up again in Windows update.  This didn't happen until after my random reboot issue started so I doubt it is related.

[Captain_WD]

I have Malwarebytes pro and Bitvise AV running but I can do a manual scan.

 

You are probably right on the OC, I do have the CPU overclocked to 4.7 so I will bring that back to stock and see if it happens again.

 

I try and keep everything as up to date as I can, I just did a bunch of driver updates after this started happening but it still is happening.  I also have an issue with 7 Windows updates that no matter how many times I install them, keep showing up again in Windows update.  This didn't happen until after my random reboot issue started so I doubt it is related.

 

It may be the case that there's something wrong with your OS. If it not too much trouble, you can backup all your data elsewhere and do a fresh install of the OS and see if that fixes anything.

 

Captain_WD.

[TechHarry]

My guess would be the overclock so yeah try on stock speeds and voltages, if that fixes it but you still want th OC then just back off your 4.7Ghz to about 4.5Ghz with same voltage and try again. I thats stable try 4.6 or lowering the voltage by very very small amounts to refine your overclock.

 

And btw don't use furmark for stressing GPU's it puts unrealistic loads on the graphics card and has been known to kill cards, even well made ones. Use something like unigine vally or heaven.

[yippy3000]

For OS, I plan on upgrading to Windows 10 so that should clean that up.

 

I tried removing the overclocking but found that I can't figure out how to in the Asus BIOS of my Z-97 Pro board.  I can remove all of the manual offsets I did and set EZ Overclocker to standard but that leaves a whole lot of things on "auto" with no assurance that the board won't just overclock on it's own because it thinks it can.

[MasterP48]

Your psu may be dying

[TechHarry]

Hang on, are you overclocking in software? if so what software so we can make sure that your overclock is disabled.

If you overclocked in the bios (the proper way) all you have to do is open the bios by mashing delete as it is booting and pushing f5 to load optimised defaults, save and exit to boot.

[yippy3000]

I was overclocking in the BIOS, I will try f5 but the way the BIOS are written it sounds like the "default" could overclock if it feels like it, but maybe that is just accounting for turboboost.

[yippy3000]

Well I set turned off the CPU overclocking as best as I could find in the BIOS (short of turning off turbo boost) and put the GPUs back to stock.  I have also done a clean install of Windows 10.

 

It is still happening.  I just had it hard reboot on me again.

 

What is the most likely culprit now?  This is going to take a long time to figure out since it is so random and infrequent.

[G33k 4 L1F3]

I was overclocking in the BIOS, I will try f5 but the way the BIOS are written it sounds like the "default" could overclock if it feels like it, but maybe that is just accounting for turboboost.

OC would give you BSOD not just power cuts. usually the errors would consist of : WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE ERROR; WATCHDOG_VIOLATION; ETC....mostly the first two.

 

This is either a PSU problem as

 

Your psu may be dying

said, or some sort of voltaging error in your outlet or breakerbar depending on what you use.

 

 

OR your PC is being zapped at random times....you sure your not poking it with a fork?

[yippy3000]

I have been avoiding the possibility of the PSU being the issue because I don't have a spare (it is only 6 months into a 10 year warranty so at least I should be able to get it fixed if it proves to be the issue).

 

It is connected to a surge protector with my monitor, I'll try running it on a different one for a while as a last ditch effort to save the RMA on my PSU.